What Do You Mean? We Love the Upper East Side!

There's only one Sandro, and he isn't in Park Slope.hahaPhoto: RJ Mickelson

Dear Grub Street,

The Upper West Side is teeming with activity, as is every other area of Manhattan, but I very rarely see anything on the Upper East Side. What have you got against the several hundred thousand people who live there and their restaurants and chefs?

— A reader with a validgripe.

Dear Reader With Gripe,
We love all New Yorkers, even those in comparatively culinarily deprived areas like the Upper East Side. But the emphasis is on comparative! There are some terrific restaurants on the UES. On the high end, you’ve got Café Boulud, the recipient of a three-star rereview in the Times a few weeks ago; the beloved Sfoglia; the criminally underdiscussed JoJo, still Vongerichten’s best (after Jean Georges) and most affordable restaurant; the always under-the-radar Etats-Unis; and who could forget Soup Burg, one of the city’s very best burgers? And new ones are opening all the time. Just the other night we were at Accademia di Vino, a big, bustling, brand-new Italian restaurant with a huge wine list; we recommend the grilled pizza. And we’re still looking forward to trying Sandro’s.

No, the Upper East Side has a lot going for it. Only in New York could it ever be overlooked.